Never Say Never
by forgivenotforget
Summary: "You've been walking around this hospital, pretending that I don't exist. You haven't said a word to me in three weeks, and now you're standing here, expecting me to forgive you, and raise a baby with you?" Alex/Izzie.
1. Prologue

**A/N: This is the first fanfic I've ever written :) And I love feedback, so please comment. I don't quite know where I want to go with this yet, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. Here we go!**

**Background info: Post season 4 finale, before 5x01.**

**Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. They are all owned by ABC, and Shonda Rhimes.**

Prologue:

The worst feeling is when time seems to slow down when you're waiting for something really important. It's like the world gets a kick out of watching you wait for minutes that seem like hours. Time seems to slow down so much that you actually wonder if the little hand on your watch has stopped moving. It's like in movies when things are in slow motion; the only catch is that you know that that would never happen in real life.

Being a surgeon, everything happens quickly. Nobody warns you about the heart attack your post-operative patient is about to have, or the fever that your newborn patient will spike in the middle of the night. Even the slowest of surgeries happen almost rapidly. You're in the OR at one minute, and the next minute you're doing charts. Surgeons do not like to wait. If we wait, people can die. That's what they tell you in medical school; hesitation only causes harm.

Patience is a virtue, but that all changes when you live the life that I do. When you're up at 4 A.M. obsessing over what emergent patients could have come into the hospital, you don't have time for patience. Patient people get left behind. You want things quickly, and you want them done right. Especially things that could change your life so significantly. A tolerant person has an advantage in any job, except for surgery. I used to be a patient person; I used to be able to wait for things like old ladies driving twenty miles under the speed limit, or people putting you on hold over the phone. But when I became a doctor, everything changed. I lost any amount of patience that I had, which may have been the reason I was pacing around the bathroom like someone who belonged on the psychiatric floor.

And at that moment, as if on cue, a bright pink 'positive' boldly popped up on the pregnancy test I was holding.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! They made me so happy! This is one of my favorite parts in the whole story, so I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: The lines spoken in the part in italics are from the episode, 4x17, Freedom (Pt. 2). I definitely did not write these lines, I only added the descriptions behind them.**

Irony. Izzie Stevens has always had a love/hate relationship with it. Like how ironic it is that this was the second time she peed on a stick with a positive result. How ironic it was that this is the second time that she'd peed on a stick, and had nobody standing outside the bathroom, waiting to hear what happens. She's never been a fan of irony; it always shows up at the most inappropriate times in her life.

She was on the borderline between awake and sleep when her alarm clock started ringing, much too loudly, in her opinion. She stood up and pushed her curtains aside, only to be greeted by rainy, dark Seattle weather. She was never a fan of the rain, but living in Washington had conditioned her to accept it. She got ready as she usually did, trying to prevent the thought of what she'd discovered the night before from even entering her mind. She couldn't think about it; she had patients to think about. She should be focusing on her career, and the brand new clinic that Bailey had officially given her. Bailey had even said, "make me proud", and she intended to do just that.

She put on her best Izzie-optimistic face as she left her room, closing the door behind herself. Walking downstairs, she made sure she was quiet enough not to wake anyone else, and made a pot of coffee. She made extra for Meredith and Alex, and usually Derek, as she did every morning. As soon as she poured her coffee into the mug, she was gone.

* * *

She was paged to the ER as soon as she stepped foot in the hospital. Predictable, rain always meant accidents. The first patient was a young, 20 year old girl. She looked way too young to even have been driving. Her car had slipped, hit a pole, and flipped over on impact, it was a bad one. The patient was sent to the OR right away with an intracranial hemorrhage. Derek was paged to the ER room, and asked Izzie if she would like to scrub in. She knew she wanted to, but she couldn't. She couldn't be digging deep in some girls' brain that morning. "No thank you, Dr. Shepherd, I think I'll just observe from the gallery today" she told him. The fact was, no one ever turned down an offer to scrub in on brain surgery. Maybe that was why the look on his face was so shocked. They wheeled the patient out of the room, with the band of doctors following her, leaving Izzie alone as they left.

Unfortunately, it was right at that time when her first round of morning sickness kicked in. She'd been expecting it; she knew it was going to happen. She was a doctor, after all, she knew what was supposed to start soon. She just didn't know when. She clutched her stomach, said a quiet 'excuse me', and almost ran over to the first bathroom she could find. She ran into a stall and knelt over the toilet, praying that nobody else was in the bathroom. It was unimaginable that she'd be doing this every morning for the next month or so.

* * *

_She knew he'd be upset, even if he didn't know it himself. That's why she walked over to his room the night after Ava was committed to the psychiatric center. That's why she faltered between actually talking to him and just offering him a plate of fresh-baked cookies and a bottle of tequila. Personally, Izzie had never been in this situation. She'd never fallen in love with someone and then had them go crazy. But she did know how it felt to have someone ripped apart from you like that. That's why she wanted nothing more than for him to smile again. It had been a long time since he'd smiled._

_He was sitting on his bed, facing the opposite direction. She hovered in the doorway for a few seconds before speaking. "I'm sorry."_

"_Whatever" he replied, completely monotone. He was always quick to use that defense._

_It wasn't until she walked over to his bed and sat down next to him did she see that he was crying. "Not whatever, I'm sorry…about Rebecca, and your mom. I'm sorry" she said._

_He turned to her, placing one hand on the side of her face, and kissed her. And at first she didn't fight it. But something in her reminded her that he was too upset to realize what he was doing._

"_Alex."_

"_Please? Just this once. Just for this one night, please?"_

_The amount of passion he had in his eyes made her feel like it was almost okay to kiss him back. Maybe kissing him back would make him feel better. That was the point of coming in his room in the first place, wasn't it? Maybe that's all he really needed to feel better. And maybe she wouldn't even think she was doing it for her own selfish reasons. So she kissed him back with as much fervor as he'd kissed her._

_After a few seconds, he broke the kiss and began to sob, so she stayed with him as he cried. A state she was so sure he wouldn't want anyone but her to see him in. A state of him that she'd rarely ever been exposed to. This was Alex so far-gone, the same way she'd felt when she was lying on the bathroom floor in her dress._

_A few nights later, she learned that although kissing him wasn't going to fix the situation, it did make him feel better. Or at least that's what she thought, when he showed up in her doorway the next night. He became attached to her for the wrong reasons and she let him because she was feeling empathetic. Normally, she wouldn't stand for something like this. She would never sleep with someone just because they were upset. But with Alex it was different. Even though she knew that he didn't feel that way about her at that moment, she couldn't help but feel happy when she would wake up next to him. Their friendship became a toy for both of them to use to get what they wanted, and as long as it made them both content, she didn't see a problem in what she was doing._


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Sorry this is so delayed :) I have so many ideas about future chapters, so I get so distracted writing them all down! This chapter is super short, and not much happens, I know, but I promise that what's coming up is going to be awesome. Happy reading!**

"Izzie?" a voice spoke from outside the stall.

Once Izzie felt that she was able to stand up again, she flushed the toilet and walked out of the stall. Cristina was standing outside, wiping her hands with a paper towel.

"Food poisoning. That's what I get for trying to be carefree and ordering the tacos in the cafeteria for lunch yesterday" Izzie told her, adding in a fake little laugh.

"Oh, okay. Well, uh, I guess…try to take it easy." Cristina was always bad at showing sympathy for people who weren't her patients. Izzie had gotten used to that.

"Of course. Thank-". Before she could finish responding, another wave of morning sickness hit her, and she ran back into the stall. She was already exhausted and disgusted by all of it. She didn't know how she was going to handle this when it got worse.

"Food poisoning this bad means that you have to go home. You can't risk treating any patients if you're like this" Cristina told her. But the last thing Izzie wanted to do was to go home. She had tried to make everything as normal as possible, and this was only day one.

"Right. Absolutely..." Izzie flushed the toilet and walked over to the sink, as reality started to sink in. This wasn't just food poisoning. This wasn't just something she'd be able to cover up for long, either. Soon, everyone would know, because nothing spread faster in that hospital than gossip. She wasn't sixteen anymore; she had responsibilities now. This baby wasn't going to be like Hannah, she couldn't let it. Giving her up was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, and it was harder to know that Hannah wasn't ready to see her when she came to the hospital.

She needed to tell someone. She needed to tell someone before she told Alex. And there was Cristina, who she didn't really even know that well. She had always gotten the vibe that Cristina didn't really like her all that much. But Cristina was a robot; she'd know how to handle this calmly without getting her feelings involved. She'd been pregnant without meaning to be. And she wouldn't tell Alex, or anyone else, except for maybe Meredith. She was the perfect person to tell.

"Okay…what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?" Cristina asked, wearily.

It was funny how just that sentence was all it took to set her off. She told her everything, starting from the first night she had stayed with Alex when he was upset over Ava. How he had begged her to stay with just his eyes, and how that was all it really took to suck her in. She was so weak, especially when it came to him. She told her how she had convinced herself that she was doing it for Alex's sake, and how idiotic she'd been for believing it. She knew that crossing that line was going to be messy, and yet she did it anyways, believing that maybe he'd want her back. Maybe he would realize that Izzie was actually the person he was meant to be with. Or maybe he was just placating her so that she'd sleep with him. Whatever the reason was, it had landed her puking in a bathroom stall at 9 A.M.

* * *

Cristina stood at one of the nurses' stations, filling out a chart of a patient she'd recently checked up on. The worst part of her job, in her opinion, was charting. She knew it was necessary, but so tedious. She was scribbling something about a Gastrectomy, when she noticed two people sneaking into an on-call room. She expected it to be one of the usual; Sloan with some nurse from the fourth floor, or an intern who didn't know any better. But she noticed it wasn't any of them; it was Alex with another girl.

Cristina knew it wasn't her place to interfere, but Izzie was sort of her friend now. Alex didn't even know what Izzie was dealing with at that moment, and he didn't care enough to keep his pants on. And when she imagined going through what she went through, knowing that Burke was sleeping around with other women, she knew she had to do something. She had to make a diversion.

"Can you please page Doctor Alex Karev to the first floor nurses' station? Let him know it's urgent" she told the nurse behind the desk. She finished her chart, placed it in the bin for the fourth-floor hospital patients, and walked away.


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: So yet again, I'm being really slow on updating this. I'm super sorry, guys! I just started college classes for the summer, and they're really demanding, so I tend to forget about this until the weekends. But it would make me really happy if you guys could give me reviews! They're what really motivate me to keep on writing, so please REVIEW! **

**Storyline Note: This chapter is kind of heart-breaking, sorry in advance! We see Alex going back to his old habits. I know it seems like Alex is really harsh, but trust me, it'll get better!**

When he looked at his watch, he couldn't believe that it was 5:30 P.M. already. It made sense that time went by quickly when you were completely immersed in something. Ever since he'd found Ava in the kitchen holding the knife that she'd ran across her wrist, he had become someone different. He had regained a certain set of responsibilities that he hadn't had since he was a nervous little kid, taking care of his mom and his brother and sister. And when Ava was admitted into the psychiatric center, he had tried to forget about her. He tried to forget about her by sleeping around, hoping that he'd wake up one morning and not wish that it was her in the bed next to him. He tried to not imagine what it would be like if they could have had an actual relationship. And he was unsuccessful in all of this, he knew he would be. So he drowned himself in his work. From 7:00 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. he wasn't Alex; he was Dr. Alex Karev. Aside from a few moments in the on-call room with a couple of nurses, he didn't let anything distract him. Bailey had commented on how well he'd been picking up surgical techniques. The Chief had mentioned that he was becoming a stronger resident each day. After work, he'd find himself in Joe's bar, trying to hook up with any girl that had a pulse. It had become routine, and as much as he tried to break out of it, he couldn't let himself go home alone each night.

He set down a few patient charts on the desk that Cristina was sitting behind, typing something on the nurses' computer.

"Any good cases today?" he casually asked. He knew if there was anything remotely interesting going on in that hospital, Cristina would be all over it.

"Don't talk to me." Her eyes didn't leave the computer screen.

He sensed another one of her mood swings coming up. "What's your problem, Yang?"

"My problem is people like you. You think you could do whatever you want, and nobody gets hurt. Well, you know what? People get hurt."

"I don't have time for you to go all Oprah on me right now. I have patients to see." He found it funny how their roles had changed. Cristina never wanted to talk about feelings and things like that. She never talked about them, and he never bothered to listen. He knew that the only reason she'd be telling him this was if Meredith wasn't around.

"Izzie is a good girl, Alex. She might not be _my_ favorite person, but she's a good girl. She's hot, and smart, and to be honest, she's way more than you deserve. And she's helping you deal with whatever your issue is and you're being an asshole."

That statement caught his attention. "_Whatever my issue is_? What did Izzie say to you?"

"She didn't tell me anything. Stop getting so defensive."

It was clear that Izzie had told Cristina _something_. And the only issue he'd been dealing with was Ava. Izzie didn't know anything more than that. "Shut up, Yang. And next time, mind your own damn business." He picked up the charts he'd brought with him and walked towards the elevator.

* * *

Driving home, he wished so badly it would stop raining. Even just for one minute, so he could actually see where he was going. It usually rained the worst at night, which extremely annoyed Alex. He had taken a new hatred towards car-rides; it was one of the only times he'd spend by himself. It gave him a chance to be alone with his thoughts, and that's what scared him the most. He hadn't allowed himself to think about Ava, or how he'd apparently complicated things with Izzie. He parked his car in front of Meredith's house, and when he walked inside, he headed straight up the stairs towards her room. He knocked on her door before walking inside.

Izzie was lying down on her bed, facing the wall. She had several tissues scattered around her; a scene that looked way too familiar. "Alex, I'm really not in the mood right now" she spoke quietly, and sat up on her bed to face him. He noticed that her eyes were bright pink, and her voice was a little bit coarser than it usually was. She'd been crying.

"What the hell is your problem? Why can't you learn to mind your own damn business for once?" He said it louder than he meant for it come out. The words came out meaner than he meant for them to come out.

She narrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"I cry for one night, two weeks ago, and you can't even shut up about it. And you go tell Cristina, like you guys have been best friends forever."

She looked back at him before finally understanding what he was talking about. "Alex…" she sighed.

He didn't mean to hurt her, but his anger got in the way of anything else he was feeling. "No. I trusted you, or at least I thought I did. I thought you'd be cool about this. But I definitely was wrong."

"Let me explain…" she started, trying to get him to let her talk. The sincerity in her voice, almost made him feel bad for getting so mad at her.

"Just shut up and don't talk to me, Izzie. I'm done dealing with your crap." As soon he spoke those words, he regretted it. But he maintained his composure, and walked straight out of her room, without looking back.

She stood up and followed him as he walked away. "Alex, please, just wait" she pleaded.

He stopped in doorway and turned around so that he was facing her. "I shared something with you that I didn't want anyone knowing, and you go and do the exact opposite. You go and tell something that wasn't yours to tell in the first place. I really thought you were different, I thought you were someone I could trust. I guess I just learned the hard way that I can't" he told her, sternly.

He noticed that her eyes were tearing up again. "You don't mean that" she quietly replied.

His voice was loud enough that he was yelling. "I don't mean it? How do you know that? You don't know anything about me, or what I mean!"

"Alex…" she closed her eyes, which caused a few tears to stream down her cheeks.

The severity in his voice surprised him; he had never gotten this mad at her before. "And when I said don't talk to me, I meant it."

She opened her eyes and looked at him for a few seconds before speaking again. "I'm pregnant."


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Yay, chapter 4! I know it seems like we're going at a really slow pace, but please, trust me! :) This chapter isn't as depressing as the last one, but we all know that Alex wouldn't be Alex if he didn't get to throw his temper tantrums :P**

**PS - Don't forget! This takes place after the season 4 finale. George is not dead yet (I almost forgot that!). Izzie doesn't have any cancer. And Denny won't be coming by anytime soon!**

**But please, pleeeeasssseee, REVIEW! My e-mail is hooked up to my cell phone, and every time I get an e-mail, I get a phone notification. When I see your pretty little reviews, it makes me happy and then I want to write! So please please REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!  
**

_She heard someone knock at the door and come in. She assumed it would be Alex, planning on getting some action that night; not even thinking about what can happen in the process. "Alex, I'm really not in the mood right now" she answered almost automatically. She pulled herself to sit up so that she was facing him._

"_What the hell is your problem? Why can't you learn to mind your own damn business for once?" _

_This wasn't the Alex that she was used to. She narrowed her eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"_

"_I cry for one night, two weeks ago, and you can't even shut up about it. And you go tell Cristina, like you guys have been best friends forever."_

_That must have been what made him so angry. Cristina must have said something to him about what Izzie had told her. But the reason she had told Cristina was that she figured that she would be the last person to tell Alex anything. Cristina was emotionally neutral and she never bothered to care about anyone's feelings besides her own, Izzie had always thought that. She wondered how much Cristina had told Alex. "Alex…" she sighed._

"_No. I trusted you, or at least I thought I did. I thought you'd be cool about this. But I definitely was wrong."_

_She had dug herself into a hole too deep. He wouldn't want to listen to her, she didn't blame him. "Let me explain…" _

"_Just shut up and don't talk to me, Izzie. I'm done dealing with your crap." She watched him walk out of the room, and knew she had to do something to stop him._

_She stood up and followed him. "Alex, please, just wait" she begged._

_He stood in the doorway of his room. "I shared something with you that I didn't want anyone knowing, and you go and do the exact opposite. You go and tell something that wasn't yours to tell in the first place. I really thought you were different, I thought you were someone I could trust. I guess I just learned the hard way that I can't."_

_Each of his words hit her like bullets through her chest. She felt the stinging in the back of her throat, and felt tears forming. "You don't mean that" she spoke quietly; almost trying to convince herself that this wasn't the real him. He was angry; he didn't know what he was saying._

"_I don't mean it? How do you know that? You don't know anything about me, or what I mean!" _

_She shut her eyes, which caused the tears that were forming to roll down her cheeks. "Alex…"_

"_And when I said don't talk to me, I meant it. Don't even bother anymore."He turned slightly towards his room._

_She debated whether or not she should tell him. This couldn't be the way things ended, she wouldn't let it be. They had gone through so much worse, and she had to prove it to him that they could get through this. She wouldn't be able to do that if he walked away now. She needed to do something, anything, to make him stay. She opened her eyes, and faintly hesitated before she spoke. "I'm pregnant."_

The silence that filled the space between them made it harder for her to concentrate. Her words had had a profound effect on her, and she tried to imagine what must have been going through his mind. Once she told him, it looked like any irritation or emotion he was feeling had disappeared. He looked at her through angry eyes, and she found herself guessing at what he would do next. It was an extremely cruel déjà vu, she was sure of it. She had never meant to tell him this way, but her desperation was overwhelming.

She watched his every move, trying to decipher any reaction she could get out of him. And to her disadvantage, he didn't give her any notions. His face kept the hard expression that he'd had when she told him; the image had glued itself to her memory. Then, in one clean motion, he turned towards his room, and slammed the door shut.

* * *

She sat down with Meredith and Cristina to eat lunch at their usual table. The thoughts in her mind seemed to be going over their speed limit, while Meredith and Cristina were having conversations that didn't seem to make any sense anyone with more than a few brain cells. She subconsciously listened to them talk about their own problems, and she had gotten used to not being able to relate. Cristina and Meredith had their own world, and Izzie never really fit in completely with the two of them.

George slammed his tray down on the cafeteria table, startling her. She looked over at him. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I hate being an intern."

She listened while he muttered something about an attending not choosing him to scrub in a case, even though he's 'been in this program from almost four years" and he has "more hands-on experience than half of the residents in the Mercy West program".

From the corner of her eye, she spotted Alex standing by a vending machine. It had been the first time she'd seen him all day. He'd usually sit with them at lunch. And at that moment, in the pit of her stomach, she had the slightest glimpse of hope. Maybe he would apologize and say that he didn't mean it. She would forgive him, and maybe they could talk about what they were going to do.

When his eyes met hers, she was instantly reminded of what had happened the night before. He still, vaguely, had the same expression. She couldn't pinpoint what it was; somewhere in between anger, sadness, and frustration, all mixed together. She held his stare before he turned, and sat down at an empty table across the cafeteria.

She had zoned out long enough to forget that George was talking to her. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to go to Joe's after work."

Drinks? She wasn't allowed to do that anymore. "Actually, I'm pretty busy tonight. Paperwork I need to catch up on, you know" she told him, almost too quickly, hoping that he wouldn't notice by the sound of her voice that she was lying. "Maybe next time."

* * *

When she walked through the door, a familiar scent surrounded her. It was sweet, somewhat like vanilla and honey-suckle flowers. Even though she had had a few drinks with everyone after work, she wasn't drunk, and she couldn't make up something like this. The house was slightly warmer than usual, and the kitchen lamp was on, even though it was almost 1:30 in the morning.

Izzie was baking again.

Meredith was never opposed to Izzie baking. She was usually grateful for it, and made sure that Izzie knew she appreciated it; who wouldn't love to wake up to freshly baked blueberry muffins? But the underlying feeling of anxiety was nagging at her, and she knew that Izzie only baked when she was upset. Her kitchen had almost exploded after Denny had died, and from then it on it seemed that whenever Izzie had a crisis, she'd be found in the kitchen, frosting a cake. It was how she dealt with things. Meredith placed her bag down on the couch, and went to see what was remaining of her kitchen.

"Hey Iz" she said with a small smile. She looked around; the counter was covered in various ingredients. There were flour marks on the counter, and egg shells covered the garbage can. Boxes of different types of cake mixes were rare; Izzie refused to bake anything that wasn't made by scratch.

"Hey. How was Joe's?"

"It was fun. We missed you, though" she told her, as Izzie was mixing something in a bowl with a spatula. Meredith sat down on a bar stool, and started to pick at the paper wrapping of a cupcake. Without changing the topic too much, she tried to remain focused on figuring out what was going on with her. "Did you have a nice night?"

"I guess so."

She tried to read her expression; wondering if she could get any clues into what was bothering her. After a few minutes of silence, she figured that maybe she shouldn't delve too deep into it. Anything she tried would be unsuccessful at that point; she'd have to wait until the morning. "I'm going to bed" she said, holding the unfoiled cupcake in her hand. "Goodnight."

Making sure to decelerate her actions, giving Izzie an opportunity to talk if she wanted to; Meredith was grateful when she spoke up. "Mer?"

"Yeah?" she replied, hoping her response wasn't too enthusiastic.

"Um…let me know how it tastes, okay?"

Meredith let out a small sigh, and began to head out of the kitchen. "Sure thing, Iz."

***Don't forget to review :)**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: It took a little while to write this, because once I had finished writing it, I realized that I didn't like it very much, ha! I love the way this one ends though, and I hope you guys will too! I got a bunch of reviews for the last chapter, so thank you all SO much! I really appreciate them all :)**

She sat on the bench in the residents' locker room, which was conveniently right next to the bathroom. She stared at the clock, as time seemed to be passing even more slowly. Ten minutes to eleven and she hadn't felt nauseous, or dizzy. She knew that morning sickness wasn't always on-time, but it had been an hour and a half. _Maybe not this morning_, she thought. She shook it off, and got up to go finish her rounds.

As the weather became colder, so did the atmosphere in the hospital. She and Alex were strangers, to say the least. Alex didn't look at her with intensity anymore; he didn't look at her at all. He treated her like nothing more than a fly on the wall. And she got used to it, even though it pained her to walk past him like nothing had ever happened. They remained civil when they were assigned to work together on a case, and only talked when it was necessary. Alex didn't sit with them at lunch anymore; he was usually nowhere to be found at that time. The empty chair at the table stayed that way; and Meredith and Cristina stopped asking where he was. And as each wordless day went by, Izzie became situated with the idea that that night may have been the last time they were ever going to speak.

* * *

"Mr. Michaels, 43, has a slight mitral valve regurge, and is scheduled for an echocardiogram later this afternoon" Alex said, presenting the case.

Dr. Hahn looked over the file. "Well Mr. Michaels, since your regurgitation is so minor, I don't think you'll need surgery just yet, but we'll know more when your test results come in."

Mr. Michaels was a young man, with a wife and two beautiful little children. Alex had been working with that family for a while now, he'd learned a lot about them. He knew that the older girl, Jackie, refused to eat hospital food; but if you took the wrapper off and put it in a plastic bag, she wouldn't know the difference. He knew that every now and then, both girls would ask to hear the story how her parents got married, and each would take turns telling different parts in the story, as if they had been in the story themselves. He almost envied Mr. Michaels, to an extent. He had everything that Alex had wanted for himself; a good job and a loving family.

Everything changed his perspective since the night Izzie told him that she was pregnant. It was all wrong; he had never envisioned himself having a kid before he was married. And he couldn't accept raising a child in a broken family. He'd learned how parents were the biggest influence in a child's life, even when a child was too young to know who its parents were. When Ava had had a hysterical pregnancy, he hated to admit it, but part of him felt relieved, of all things. He had been in love with Ava, but he hadn't _loved_ her. And he knew that being a parent with someone he didn't love wouldn't end well. Whatever happened, he knew that raising a kid like that would be the exact opposite of what he'd been aiming towards for most of his life.

He went to check up on Mr. Michaels, who asked Alex to call him Dave, before he ended his shift. Dave's wife was reading a bed-time story to their two girls, as they were slowly falling asleep. In that room, he should have been focusing on his job, he knew he shouldn't be thinking of toilet-paper-roll Christmas ornaments that he may receive, or messy finger paint drawings that he could hang on his fridge. But thoughts like this began to invade his head, and began to light his perception of that entire situation. _Maybe it's a good thing,_ he thought, _maybe it'll work out._

With Izzie, things were different. Izzie was always that person who understood him, or cared enough to understand him. He had loved Izzie, and he had loved her for a while. Feelings that strong don't go away that easily. It broke him to know that Izzie had chosen George over him, especially when he'd told her how he felt about her. It wasn't easy for him, and it took away some of his pride. But Izzie was _that girl_. The girl he would take home to meet his mom, and the girl that he could imagine living in a house with. He started to realize how his words had an effect on her; because in the end, he knew he was wrong. Izzie hadn't done anything, and he was angry. But it was all different now because she was having a baby, his baby. He could either continue ignoring her, and be that dead-beat dad who doesn't give a crap what happens to his kid, or push past everything, if not for her then for this baby.

* * *

As he walked into the residents' locker room the next morning, he found that Izzie had just gotten to work as well. He noticed that she didn't once turn around, even though he was sure that she knew he was there. This was a routine she had probably gotten used to, and he knew he could only blame himself. He was the one who had been ignoring her, and tried to pretend that she didn't exist. Pushing his problems away was a technique that never ended well, but he did it anyways, almost like it was a habit.

He knew what he had to do; he had to make things better between them. She walked out of the locker room, and he followed her.

"Izzie…"

No response. She didn't turn around, she kept walking forward.

"Izzie" he repeated.

She stopped, but didn't bother to turn around. He pulled her into the supply closet that they were standing next to, and closed the door behind him.

She turned to face him, and he looked at her in the eyes. "When I was little, my parents fought. A lot. I would sit in my room and pretend to watch T.V. while I could hear them yelling across the hall. I would take my brother and sister outside to play so they didn't hear the slaps that I would hear every now and then. And when they finally split up, I thought we were free. I thought everything would be okay."

She eyed him, cautiously. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Even though all of that is what got me to where I am today, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. And I promised myself that when I had a kid, I wouldn't ever let him or her go through what I did."

"I know that you don't want to feel like an asshole, but I also know that you're not ready for this. You say things like this to me, and I believe you. And I put it behind myself and think '_wow, maybe he really has changed_'. But nothing has changed, Alex. You have the same mentality you did four years ago when I first met you. And if I hadn't told you I was pregnant, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

"I'm not ready to be a dad, but how many people are? It's something you learn; nobody is born-ready for it. I know that you think that I'm still the same guy who broke your heart, but I'm also the same guy who took you off Denny's bed when he died. I'm the same guy who waited for hours until your shift ended so we can go home together. I'm still the same guy, I'm still Alex. So maybe if you can see past the crappy things I've done, we can actually do this" he told her.

She shook her head. "You've been walking around this hospital, pretending that I don't exist. You haven't said a word to me in three weeks, and now you're standing here, expecting me to forgive you, and raise a baby with you?"

He had a feeling this wouldn't be easy. "I didn't mean for it to happen this way. But after Ava and what happened to her, and then you telling me that night; it was the wrong way to deal with it. I know that."

"I don't know, Alex. I just don't know how much I can depend on you anymore" she replied.

"Iz, you can say what you want. But if you plan on having this baby, then I swear I'm gonna be around. I know what it's like to grow up without a dad, and I don't plan on having this kid find out."

She didn't say anything, for what seemed like hours, and then spoke quietly. "So…we're having a baby?"

He nodded, and smiled softly. "We're having a baby."

*** Don't forget to review :)**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: To my amazing, wonderful readers: I find it incredible that it has been almost a month since I've updated, and I'm still getting new reviews. You guys are the best! I've been going through a lot of stuff with A/I, and it's gotten to the point where sometimes I wonder if there's a point to always believing that KH will come back. That made it really difficult for me write this, and to finish writing my other one-shot (The Man Who Can't Be Moved). But I've finally started to sort of get over it (I hope :P). So here you go! **

**This is a good cutesy chapter for the most part. It's sort of a filler, and whatnot.**

The smell of blueberry pancakes and French toast seemed fill the entire house, and he couldn't escape it. Even though the kitchen was down stairs, the scent almost woke him up in his room. He looked over at the clock; it was a little after 3:30AM. The smell was too good to be Meredith's cooking, and when he realized that it was probably Izzie, he got out of bed and went downstairs.

The only light that was on was coming from the kitchen, which almost made Alex trip as he went down the stairs. He cursed quietly when he did, and walked into the kitchen.

"Izzie?" he said, as he rubbed his eye from the intensity of the light. It was too early, way too early.

The kitchen was a mess, which was to be expected. A stack of pancakes and French toast sat on the counter, right next to a few muffins from earlier that week.

"Crap, sorry. Did I wake you up?"

He shook his head. "It's three-thirty in the morning. We have to wake up in an a couple hours for work. Besides, aren't pregnant chicks supposed to be tired?"

"But that's the point! It takes me forever to fall asleep as it is. It's either way too hot in my room or its freezing. And then, as soon as I'm about to fall asleep, I have to pee. And then it starts all over again. This whole pregnancy thing isn't really working out with me, Alex." She put the plates of food into the fridge, and started to clean up her surroundings.

Her frustration about the smallest thing amused him. "So you decided to make breakfast instead?" he asked.

She threw an empty egg carton into the garbage, and placed a bowl and a spatula in the sink. "I had nothing better to do" she simply said.

He sat down at one of the stools by the counter, and started to take a piece of the French toast, before she softly slapped it out of his hand. "Hey, that's for Meredith!" she said, pulling the plate away from him.

"What, I don't get breakfast?" he asked.

"No. You're on probation, remember?"

He laughed, entertained by the endless possibility of dirty jokes that could be made at that point. "Really," he said, raising his eyebrows and smirking, "so what does this probation entail, exactly? Do I need to be hand-cuffed?"

She let out a small laugh, before throwing an oven-mitt which was next to her at his direction. "You really _haven't _changed."

He wasn't sure how he was supposed to take that. "Is that good, or bad?" he asked.

She smiled. "This time, it's good. You still know how to make me laugh."

Just her smile made the room a little bit brighter. It seemed funny to him how less than twenty-four hours ago, they weren't talking; and now it seemed like they were back to their old selves; laughing and joking around. It made him realize how much he had truly missed her.

"You should go to sleep" he said. As soon as her back was turned, he reached over the counter, and took another small piece of Meredith's French toast. He was too late though, because as soon as he took it, she noticed. He walked, almost ran, straight out of the kitchen, and towards the stairs to avoid what she would do.

He could hear the laughter in the voice. "Goodnight Alex" she said, speaking a little bit louder since he was no longer in the room.

"Night, Iz" he replied.

* * *

Izzie sat back in the chair in the lab room, as she waited for the results of the CT scan to appear on the computer screen. Exhaustion had been following her all day, and she knew it was nobody's fault but her own. She should have been sleeping all night instead of baking. It seemed insane for any normal person to stay awake for more than thirty-two hours, let alone anyone carrying a baby around for almost two months. She had bargained with the idea that since she couldn't get to sleep then, she'd never get to sleep. But she soon started to regret it as she watched the sun rise over a plate of freshly-baked sugar cookies.

She yawned, as the image of her patient's brain slowly crept up on the monitor. She tried to look for anything; a hemorrhage, any bleeding, or even a small tumor. Part of her felt bad that she was wishing for something wrong just so that her life would become a bit more interesting. Unfortunately, she knew that it was a feeling shared by many doctors who had watched the same screen before. She was focused so closely on the image, that she didn't even hear Meredith come in and sit down beside her.

"Anything good?" Meredith asked.

"Nothing yet" she replied. "This scan is taking a long time."

Meredith nodded, understandingly. "So…you and Alex sounded like you were having a good time last night."

The statement caught her off-guard. "Oh…you heard us? Sorry, I didn't realize we were being that loud."

She shook her head. "No, it's fine. Actually, I'm glad you two worked things out" Meredith told her, as she got up and walked out.

Izzie turned her gaze back to the picture on the screen, which was almost done loading. She pushed down on the speaker button. "Just a few more seconds, Mrs. Levy, we're almost done here" she said, and released the button.

As she waited to print the image, she thought about the woman sitting in the machine; terrified, unsure of what was going to happen. From the picture for the CT scan, it seemed like everything would be fine. Izzie could tell that she was going to be okay. She didn't need surgery, and she probably didn't need to stay in the hospital overnight. But all she could think about was the patient and how scared she must be. Mrs. Levy didn't have any other family; her husband had passed away, and she had no children. Not even a brother or sister. She had seen cases of the elderly or young children who were all alone, and it never made it any easier.

She realized that Mrs. Levy and she were not all that different. Izzie had people, but when she thought about it, and really thought about it, she didn't have anyone. She had Denny, who died before she could even actually have him. She had her mom, who she hadn't spoken to for anything besides a cupcake recipe. She had Meredith and George, who were both so absorbed in their own lives that she barely got to see them. And she had Alex, who most likely wouldn't bother to look at her if she wasn't carrying his child. If she was the one who was getting the CT scan, she wondered if there would be anyone waiting for her.

Before she could finish looking over the scan, the steady tick of the blood pressure device began to race, as her patient started to crash.

* * *

He pulled into the driveway of Meredith's house, and shut off his car. He looked around, and it seemed like he was the last person to get off of work. He spotted Izzie, Meredith, Derek, Cristina and George's cars all near the house. Most nights, they'd all be at their own apartments. But the weekends were a different story. Ever since they'd all gotten together to watch tapes of Meredith's mothers' surgeries, it had become habit. They'd all meet up at the house, and go to Joe's afterwards. Izzie would cook dinner, while Cristina and Derek would debate neurology versus cardio. Meredith and George would usually help Izzie in the kitchen until they'd all eat dinner. The only time anyone was actually quiet was when they were eating.

He walked inside, expecting nothing but loud conversations and something possibly burning. As he placed his coat on the hook, he found it almost funny how everyone had the night off, but couldn't keep a conversation that didn't have to do with the hospital. He overheard George and Meredith discussing a pre-op patient, while Cristina and Derek were talking about the benefits of using sutures over staples. As predictable as it was, that environment was the closest thing he'd ever felt to having an actual family. And an actual family meant one that didn't spend all their time fighting or threatening to leave each other. Even though he thought George was pathetic, Cristina was annoying, and Derek spent too much time on his hair; he knew things wouldn't be the same if any of them weren't there that night.

He greeted everyone, and placed the bottle of wine he'd picked up on the kitchen counter. Izzie was running around herself, as usual, trying to make a salad and baste a chicken. She smiled at him slightly, but then returned to chopping lettuce.

He walked towards where she was standing, and made sure that he maintained the conversation at a lower volume. He soon realized that even if he had yelled it out, everyone else was so consumed in their own conversations that they wouldn't even hear him. "How are you?" he asked.

"I'm good…fine. Just like the other seven times you've asked me today" she answered stubbornly.

"Sorry." He took out two tomatoes from the fridge and placed them beside the salad bowl. "You should sit down. You didn't even get any sleep last night."

"Neither did you."

He sighed. "You know what I mean…"

She ignored him, as she placed the chicken with its pan in the oven.

"Okay, so is this like, a hormonal thing? Or a mood swing? Because you can't be pissed at me when I haven't even been here for five minutes." His voice unintentionally became louder.

To his surprise, her face softened. "You're right" she replied. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired and I had a long day." She pushed the chopped lettuce into the bowl, and began cutting the tomatoes.

"It's cool, but Iz, you need to take a break. You've been awake for almost two days, you look exhausted, and this can't be good for the -". She cut him off before he could finish, motioning towards the others with her eyes.

"I'll take it easy once I'm done here. I promise" she told him. "I have an appointment at the hospital tomorrow morning. You can come, if you want."

It was one thing to talk about the idea of a baby growing, but it was another thing to see it actually happen. To see a baby on the screen almost made it realer than it actually was. It put everything into a different perception, and it never really hit him until he realized that it was actually happening. He'd felt the same way when it was Ava's baby, but with Izzie, he felt more secure. He felt that maybe, they really would be okay, after all. Maybe it wasn't just what people said to make you feel better when you were in a bad situation.

"Yeah" he said, with a small smile. "I'll be there."

***Don't forget to review :)**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N: Again with the late update :( I'm really sorry guys. But I swear, I've been working on this chapter for 3 weeks now. Look up writers' block in the dictionary; it's literally the worst thing ever! This is probably the sixth time I've written this chapter, and I'm finally happy with how it came out. ****Reviews do help though, I swear.**** Let me know what you want to want to see, what you don't want to see, what you're excited for, etc etc.  
Updates from now on will be a lot faster, because I know for sure where I want to go with the story now. Thank you guys so much for being so loyal, as always. You're the best! (:  
**

He woke up to the sound of running footsteps in the hallway, and then a door slam shut. Closing his eyes, he silently hoped that it was still dark outside so that he'd get a few more hours of sleep. But once he opened his eyes again, he noticed the faint reflections of a dim sunrise streaming through his window. He pushed the covers off of himself and sat up, although his brain protested and tried to think of excuses for him to go back to sleep.

Down the hallway, he noticed the bathroom door cracked opened, and a blonde kneeling over the toilet. He quietly stepped inside.

"You okay?" he asked, as he tried to mask the slight concern at the bottom of his stomach. _It's pathetic_, he reminded himself, _you know that this is normal._

She nodded slowly and shut her eyes, as she sat back up and leaned against the wall. The color in her cheeks was slightly paler than usual, and she looked surprisingly thinner. But mainly, he couldn't help but notice that her stomach was a bit wider. It wasn't a big difference; and it probably wasn't noticeable to people who didn't know. Maybe it was the way her tank top outlined her figure, but there was definitely something there.

He took the glass cup that was sitting next to the sink and filled it with water. Carefully, he sat down on the bathroom floor and handed it to her. She opened her eyes once she felt him next to her.

"Thank you" she said, with a small smile. "It's times like these that make me really appreciate 80-hour work week limits."

He envied the fact that she didn't have to go to work. "So what are your plans for today?"

"I don't have any yet. Probably going to end up emptying out Meredith's fridge, trying to find something to bake" she chuckled.

"Well, why don't we just hang out here tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Here? As in, next to the toilet?"

He laughed. "We can order take-out or watch a movie or something" he said. "I mean, unless you'd rather stay in the bathroom."

"Sure, that sounds nice" she nodded. "Alex, you really don't need to do all this."

"Shut up."

* * *

"Wanna trade?" Alex said as walked over to her, holding a chart very similar to the one Meredith was filling out. "Broken tib-fib, showing signs of compartments' syndrome."

"That sure sounds a lot better than…" Meredith read the diagnosis on her chart: "an inflamed and infected gallbladder, scheduled to be removed this afternoon."

"You win." An infected gallbladder removal was one of the most intricate, and probably one of the most disgusting procedures a doctor would have to do. He remembered the time he was scrubbing in on a gallbladder removal, and it practically exploded all over Dr. Bailey. "I need to go do rounds."

"You're doing rounds now?" she asked, with surprise. "It's a little early"

"I'm only going to be here for a few hours. I'm going with Izzie to her-" he stopped himself. "I'm meeting up with Izzie."

Meredith looked at him with apprehension, and he turned to leave. As he began to walk away, he assumed that he was off the hook, and was even impressed with the way that he'd handled that. But her voice pulled him back into their halted conversation.

"Alex? Since you used to sleep with my sister, and you've been living at my house for almost two years…I think we're friends" she said, easing into what she really wanted to know. "So what's going on with Izzie?"

He wasn't sure how to respond; he didn't know if Izzie had already told Meredith, or if she even wanted to tell people at all. But this affected his life as much as it did hers, and he figured that since they were both living with Meredith, she had a right to know.

"Um…I don't really know how to say this" he said, as he approached her.

"She's strong, Alex. She's a big girl. You know, whatever it is, it's going to be okay, because she's going to make it be okay" she replied. "Just, is it bad? Because you kind of have me freaking out a little bit over here."

He sighed and rubbed his forehead a little bit. "Mer, Izzie's pregnant."

* * *

She moved uncomfortably, sitting on the examination table. The doctor had asked her to put on a patients' gown, which made it a little awkward with Alex in the same room. She was thankful when he offered to step outside so she could change. At the same time, she knew it was ridiculous; he'd seen her naked countless times. Besides, what was she going to when she was giving birth, ask him to wait outside?

"Everything looks pretty good here, Izzie" the doctor said, as she reviewed her file. "I'm just going to need to do a few tests, so I'm going to need some blood, but after that, you're free to go. Before we start, though, I have a few questions."

"Oh, okay" she replied with a small nod.

"When, exactly, did you take your first positive pregnancy test?"

"I think…a little over two months ago? I'm up to 9 weeks now" She recalled every detail about the night she found out, as if it had been burned into her memory.

The doctor quickly scribbled something down, and turned back to Izzie. "Have you smoked, had any alcoholic beverages, or taken any drugs since you found out?"

She shook her head. "No, nothing."

"Good" she said, and Izzie could tell that she was checking off some boxes on that same sheet. "And this is the first baby you've had, correct?"

She should have seen this coming. It was inevitable; she'd done patient histories before for OB-GYN patients. Why didn't she think of it sooner? Alex had no idea about Hannah, and this was the last way she wanted him to find out. She spoke slowly and cautiously formed her words. "No…this will be the second baby I've had."

She felt Alex quickly turn his head towards her direction, but she knew better than to turn around. He would be angry, she didn't doubt that, but there would be no reason for him to be. It was before she'd met him; she was young and foolish and it was part of her past and she aimed to keep it that way.

The rest of the appointment was as expected; the doctor talking to Izzie and Alex remaining silent, not that he'd been saying anything before. When she was finished, Alex walked out the door wordlessly and by the time she finished changing back into her regular clothes, he was gone. She sighed in frustration; she had suspected that this side of Alex was too good to be true, and she had set herself up to be disappointed when reality came crashing down. She made another appointment with the secretary before leaving.

She entered the residents' locker room, to find Alex standing in front of his locker. He looked at her, and rolled his eyes.

"What's your problem?" she asked, with exclamation.

"You have a kid, Izzie! Were you going to, oh, I don't know, bother telling me anything about it?"

"I was _sixteen_. Why does it matter?"

"Because I'd like to know if _my_ kid had a half-brother or half-sister somewhere! You can't mess with peoples' heads like that" he said, as he pulled on his white lab coat.

"Half-sister" she replied, calmly. "Her name is Hannah."

He took a deep breath in. "Listen, I get it. The whole not wanting to talk about it, I understand. But this isn't about who you heard snuck off together in the on-call room. This is-" he was cut off by the loud beep of his pager. He looked down, and words '911 – trauma bay 2' appeared on the small digital screen. "We'll talk at home, okay?" he said, grabbing his I.D. from his locker. "I gotta go."

She nodded, and before she could say another word, he was already out the door.

* * *

He held the steering wheel with one hand, while trying to find the number for the Chinese food takeout near their house. He scrolled down through his address book, until he finally found it. Trying to keep at least some of his attention on the road, he pushed the speakerphone button on his phone and waited for someone to pick up.

He knew exactly what Izzie's would want to eat; he'd gotten used to her getting the same thing every time they got Chinese food. He used to tease her on her predictability, and she'd always say that one day she would order something different. But it was three years later, and Alex found himself picking up Chicken Lo Mein with mixed vegetables…again.

Sometimes, he'd missed the comfort, or even the predictability, of being in relationship. Having someone to go home with or wake up to; the stability of it was something Alex needed. He wouldn't dare to try to date anyone now; and the image of Izzie going out with some other guy, while she was carrying Alex's baby, made him sick to his stomach. When he found out about the baby, he'd always had this image in his head of him and Izzie, back together, with their kid. Like one of those lame family movies, where the girl is pregnant and the guy isn't ready to have kids – but they both fall in love again and end up happy. He longed for a family so much, he just wanted something he could call his.

He walked in, and placed the bag on the table in the kitchen. Looking around, he tried to spot a plate of muffins, brownies, or cookies hidden somewhere, and was relieved when he saw a clean, empty kitchen. "Izzie?" he called out, assuming she was upstairs.

He started to open the bag and set out the different containers. Izzie came downstairs, and turned the corner to find Alex setting the table. A confused look dawned on her. "Hey" she said, trying to figure out what was going on. "What is all this?"

He narrowed his eyebrows, in confusion as well, as he took the last plastic container out of the bag. "I thought we said we'd hang out here tonight. You know, movies, Chinese food…stuff that normal people do?" he added.

"No, I know" she replied, with a small smile. "It's just that…with everything that happened today, I just thought…"

"Thought…that I'd get food and make you watch me eat it?" he joked. He noticed a smile spread across her face. "What?"

She shook her head quickly. "It's nothing. I'm just surprised." She began to help him set the table, and took two pairs of utensils out of the drawer near the sink. "Old Alex would be sitting on stool at Joe's right now…probably trying to find some nurse to hook up with."

"Yeah, well old Alex wasn't going to be someone's dad" he replied, throwing away the paper bag.

"You know, today when you walked out of the doctors' office, I started to think that you hadn't changed, and that we really weren't ready for this after all. That I was forcing myself to think that you were someone else, just so I could make myself feel better. But after you found out about Hannah, and after what happened in the locker room, you still ended up bringing home take-out and saying that you want to watch a movie." Her face lit up, and he could tell that she was really serious about all this. "I didn't expect it. I guess I'm just trying to say thank you" she said, and leaned towards him to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He smiled; being so far from her for so long, he hadn't realized what he'd been missing. Just that closeness made the events of that afternoon seem almost insignificant. "We're going to do this, Iz. We're going to do this right, and even if we're not ready to parents, we'll learn."

She couldn't hold back the smile that was escaping her. "Besides, I've been craving Chinese all day, so even if I was mad at you, I would have caved eventually" she added, with a small laugh.

***Don't forget to review :)**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N: Yay for faster updates (: I got a whole bunch of reviews from you guys last time, and I really am so amazed. You guys are incredible! Some of you wanted to see Meredith's reaction, so I put that in here, along with a little bit of MD cuteness. You'll probably see more of Meredith in the next chapter. Some of you (or, maybe it's actually just one of you :P) wanted to see some Izzie/George as well, so I did some of that too. Please believe me when I say that they will be fixed; I fixed Alex/Izzie, so I can definitely fix George/Izzie. Okay, no more spoiling, I swear! Reviews are what keep me going, you know that ;) Let me know what you want to more of/less of/what you liked/what you hated, etc etc.  
**

_The monitor held its steady beep, as Meredith silently dozed off for a few seconds. She used every ounce of energy she had left to wake herself up again. The coffee in her cup was getting cold, and she began to realize how much she hated night shifts. She regretted volunteering to monitor her patient overnight, when she could have been at home, in her warm bed._

_The sunrise made its faint presence in narrow strips along the wall through the hospital window. Meredith handed the case off to the first nurse she could find, and began her search for caffeine. The small coffee cart on the fourth floor was most likely closed, so she walked unenergetically towards the elevator. She pressed the button and yawned, as the elevator opened, and in it stood a familiar face._

"_Good morning" Derek said, placing a soft kiss on her forehead._

_It seemed as if her morning _did_ suddenly become a little better. "What are you doing here?" she asked, a smile still lingering on her lips._

"_I was going to check up on you in Lisa Klein's room, and bring you this." He handed her one of the two cups of coffee in his hands._

"_You really are perfect" she said, with a small laugh. "It's a little bit freaky."_

_"But y__ou love it." He took a look at the time on his wrist watch. "I have to go prep a patient for a craniotomy. I'll see you later today." _

_She nodded, and gave him a quick kiss goodbye before he walked in the opposite direction. She headed towards the nurses' station, and contemplated the stack of charts sitting on the desk. In an hour, she knew they'd all be gone, and she tried to eyeball the one that looked the most interesting from the outside. When she decided that she must be going crazy, she chose a chart at random, and began to review it. Before finishing the first line, she was interrupted. _

"_Wanna trade?" She watched Alex, who was holding his own patient chart, walk towards the station. "Broken tib-fib, showing signs of compartments' syndrome."_

"_That sure sounds a lot better than…" Her eyes darted down towards the bottom of the page, where she read the diagnosis out loud: "an inflamed and infected gallbladder, scheduled to be removed this afternoon."_

_Alex surrendered. "You win." Even when she didn't mean to, Meredith was stuck with cases that nobody wanted. "I need to go do rounds" he said._

"_You're doing rounds now? It's a little early."_

"_I'm only going to be here for a few hours. I'm going with Izzi__e to her-" she saw him hesitate __briefly, before finishing his sentence. "I'm meeting up with Izzie."_

_She took a moment to wonder why Alex was being so secretive. Something was going on with Izzie; Meredith knew it. "Alex? Since you used to sleep with my sister, and you've been living at my house for almost two years…I think we're friends" she said, and wondered if Alex would tell her. "So what's going on with Izzie?"_

_It looked like her words were starting to break him down. "Um…I don't really know how to say this" _

_For some reason, Meredith immediately went for the worst. Was Izzie sick? She didn't look sick. She was working long shifts; someone who was sick couldn't work long shifts. Was it her mom, or someone in her family? She tried to stop these thoughts long enough so that she could get the answer out of him. "She's strong, Alex. She's a big girl. You know, whatever it is, it's going to be okay, because she's going to make it be okay" she told him. "Just, is it bad? Because you kind of have me freaking out a little bit over here."_

_There was a brief moment of stillness between them before he finally replied. "Mer, Izzie's pregnant."_

_For a few seconds, Meredith felt nothing but relief; Izzie having a baby was a lot better than Izzie being sick or Izzie dying. But then it started to sink in…she was having a baby. She was going to be somebody's mom. If this didn't completely change her life, it would change a lot of the lives of the people around her as well. Who was the father? Was she going to keep the baby? Would she be able to keep her job, or would she quit once the tolls of motherhood got too hard? A million questions flooded her mind, but she kept very still._

"_Oh…wow."_

_Alex slightly nodded. "Yeah."_

"_That explains a lot" was all Meredith could get out._

_

* * *

_

She tossed another shirt onto her bed in frustration. It had been the fifth top she'd tried on that morning, and her bed was almost covered in all the different shirts she'd owned. She stood in a white cami in front of her closet, and after a few minutes of contemplation, pulled a light purple v-neck off its hanger. A knock at the door broke her thoughts. "Come in" she replied, as she pulled the blouse over her head.

Alex stood in the doorway, and looked at the mess of clothes on her bed. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find something to wear" she answered, as if what she was doing was relatively normal behavior. She stood in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of her room, turning several times, left and right, to decide.

"Why does it matter? You're going to be wearing scrubs."

She sighed. "You're a guy. You can throw on whatever you wore the night before and it would be okay." She stood with her side turned towards the mirror. "Besides, I don't put on my scrubs until I get to the hospital."

"Well, you never know who you can run into in the twenty minute drive all the way there…" his tone was laden with sarcasm. He shook his head a little bit and smiled at her ridiculous logic. "You're going to be late" he told her, matter-of-factly.

"No, I think I'm almost ready." She looked at herself, standing sideways next to the mirror, and made a realization. "That's what it is. They're definitely bigger."

"What?"

"My boobs!" She grabbed both of them with her two hands. "They're bigger. Aren't they bigger?"

He raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was actually expecting him to answer. If she had planned on the two of them staying just friends, well, this sure wasn't helping. "I-I don't know…" he answered uncomfortably.

"They _are_ bigger" she repeated to herself. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"Did you go to medical school?" he teased.

She took a shirt off of her bed and threw it in his direction. He moved before it hit him and started laughing. "Get out" she said, unable to hold back a laugh herself. He walked across the hallway to his room, and she spent a few more minutes in front of the mirror before concluding that she was okay with what she was wearing.

"If you finally decide on what to wear in the next 10 minutes…" Alex called from the other room. "I'll give you a ride to work."

* * *

George pulled on the door quietly, at first, but when he realized that it wouldn't close, he had to pull harder. It was one of the many, many perks of living in the "crapartment", as he'd liked to call it. Living on an intern's salary wasn't easy, and he was counting the days until he could re-take his intern exam and become a resident for more reasons than one.

His days primarily consisted of work, because of the fact that, well, he had nobody to really talk to. He had a few friends at the hospital who were interns also, but they were mostly just acquaintances. When he failed his intern exam, he wasn't able to do everything his old friends were able to. He wasn't allowed to move up to the fancy new residents' locker room; he kept his old locker in the same location it had been for the past four years. Mostly, he wasn't given the opportunities that they were, and it was hard to watch his former peers excel while he was left behind.

Regardless of everyone else moving up, George had noticed that a distance had been created between him and everyone else that wasn't there before. He wondered if it was really because he was still an intern, but he doubted it. Meredith, Cristina, Alex, Izzie and George had begun their residency together, although it seemed that everything was slowly changing. Not like they were breaking apart, just that he was breaking off. He missed the way things were, and even though Lexie was one of his good friends, he missed the comfort that he felt when he was with the four of them.

He walked into the sordid interns' locker room, and changed quickly. He was supposed to be scrubbing in on a surgery with Cristina, and decided that he would get the patient file and wait until she got in. He was even being nice to Cristina, which was strange and oddly reassuring at the same time. Even if he wouldn't admit it, he even missed Cristina harassing him on a daily basis.

He sat down on a bench in the resident locker room, and watched as more and more people began to come in for work. Eventually, someone he knew walked in. Meredith waved and talked to him for a few minutes before running off to start rounds. Alex was next, with Izzie right behind him. He noticed them walk in together, laughing, and he saw something in her face that he'd felt he hadn't seen in a long time – not anytime that _they_ were together, at least. George knew that he didn't still think of Izzie that way, and although they'd ended on rocky terms, he'd missed her the most. Mainly, he was happy that she looked so happy.

There were little things about her that had already begun to change. He did note that she walked with a different stride now; there was something about her body language he couldn't pin-point. She looked different, and yet, she looked the same. Maybe a little more tired, but that doesn't mean much when you work in a hospital. There must have been something going on with her, and it slightly upset him that they were so disconnected. They used to be best friends, and he used to know everything about her. Now, they barely talked. She never came out to Joe's anymore, and he didn't see her much at work.

All of a sudden, it started making sense. She looked different. She acted different. She walked differently – and it wasn't so much a walk, as it was a wobble. Her and Alex walking in together. Her stomach, that seemed to be slightly protruded, even though she tried to hide it with a loose top. And the fact she was _never_ at Joe's anymore, which had previously been her second home. George was a doctor, and it wouldn't even take a doctor to put the facts together.

"Izzie?" he spoke, with a hint of astonishment in his voice.

She turned, upon hearing her name. She greeted him with a grin. "Hi George. What are you doing here?"

He stood up. "Do you think…can we talk outside for a minute?"

"Sure, I guess" she replied.

He walked out first, with her following, and stopped a few feet away from the locker room.

"What's going on?" she asked, as she pulled her shoulder-length blonde hair into a ponytail.

He didn't know where to begin; how would you ask something like this without being offensive? He knew that Izzie wouldn't take offense even if he was wrong, she would probably laugh and hit him for insinuating something so ridiculous. But part of him was afraid that maybe she had changed so much that he really couldn't make that assumption anymore.

"Izzie, I know…" he began. "I know we haven't been as close as we used to be lately. But I'm still George, you know? Even if we don't talk for 10 years, I'll always be George. I guess what I'm trying to say is…is everything okay?"

He could tell that some walls around her secret were starting to slowly crumble. She didn't speak for a few seconds, and looked at him straight in the eyes. "You know, don't you?" she spoke quietly.

"I don't know." He fidgeted with the patient file he had been holding onto since before. "I can only guess. And I won't know for sure, unless you tell me." When he saw that she was hesitant to respond, he spoke again. "How long?"

"Three months."

He sighed. "Three months. You've known about this for three entire months, and I hadn't even noticed" he said. "Who's the father?"

She faltered before speaking once more. "Alex" she said, tersely.

"Alex?" he spoke with surprise. "Since when are you two friends again?"

"Since Ava was committed, or maybe before…it's a long story."

"Right" he said. "Well I wouldn't know anything about that, since you couldn't be bothered to tell me any of this, since it happened _five months ago_."

She shook her head slowly. "George, I know you feel left out, and I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He didn't bother saying anything else. "Please."

"Three months" he repeated to himself, and shook his head. "Really, just…good luck, Izzie."

At the end of the hall, Cristina poked her head out of the locker room. "Bambi, let's go. This isn't the time for a tea party."

George followed her, without looking back once at Izzie.

* * *

Alex stood in Mr. Michaels' room, as Dr. Hahn did a routine pre-operation check-up. It wasn't the first time he'd done a mitral valve repair, or scrubbed in with Dr. Hahn, but it seemed to get more and more exciting each time. That adrenaline-pumping feeling right before you open the patient, the feeling of saving someone's life, was what kept Alex doing it every day. In the operating room, the world around you fades and all you have is your patient and your scalpel. Some doctors like to talk; discuss politics, or the weather, but Dr. Hahn usually remained focused on her work and talked only when necessary. Alex liked that.

"You're good to go, Dave" Dr. Hahn concluded, after doing one last test. "I'll see you in the OR."

She left, and Alex gave Dave some time to say goodbye to his wife and kids. His two daughters hugged him both at once, and Alex noticed that the younger girl began to get teary-eyed. His wife kissed him goodbye quickly, and turned back to their daughter. He began to roll Dave out, and they all followed him until they couldn't anymore. He left the family in the waiting room, with an assurance that he would be fine.

Three hours into the surgery, the light shined brightly upon the open chest cavity, as Dr. Hahn traded several instruments between her and the nurse. Alex remained kept his focal point on her work, until he was interrupted.

"Karev."

He looked up at the surgeon standing in front of him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, what's the advantage in repairing the valve, as opposed to replacing it?"

He remembered reading about this in a medical textbook the day before. "With valve replacements, there is a higher risk mortality, and higher risk of stroke or infection. There's also a chance it could be rejected by the patient's body."

"Very good" she nodded in satisfaction. "You might even be tied with Yang for cardio. Wanna try your stitching?"

He looked at her incredulously through his surgical mask and cap. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." She handed him the suture, as he began to weave through the patients' heart, creating small stitches like the ones she'd made before.

Suddenly, the machine above the patient started beeping rapidly, as the patient's heart rate began to increase. "He's 160/100, getting systolic" a small nurse said from the back.

"What did you do, Karev?" She moved quickly and efficiently, as she tried to stabilize the patient.

"I didn't do anything! I did exactly what you were doing." He moved right behind her, becoming a backbone to every move she made.

An hour later, the two surgeons walked out of the operating room solemnly. There wasn't much to be said; it was never easy to lose a patient, especially a patient they'd been working with for so long. How was he supposed to tell Dave's wife and kids that a routine procedure was actually the cause of their father's death?

Dr. Hahn accompanied Alex to the waiting room, where he found Mr. Michaels' wife curled up with their two children, who had fallen fast asleep. When she heard the sound of someone approaching, she opened her eyes. She recognized the two of them, and slowly stood up.

"Mrs. Michaels…" she began. "There were a few…complications, with your husband's surgery."

Her face dropped, and her entire expression grasped a look of horror. "What?"

"His heart just couldn't keep up with the operation. We did everything we could…" she replied, as Alex remained quiet.

"I thought…this was routine. You do this every day…" she moved back, to sit down on the nearest chair behind her. "And now…now, you're saying that he's dead?" Tears began to flow down her cheeks. "How am I supposed to tell my girls that their father is dead?"

Sensitivity training was made for moments like these. Doctors were taught to be sensitive and understanding but detached. But in Alex's entire drive home, he could not get the face of Dave's wife, and his two children, asleep, out of his mind. Part of him knew that Mr. Michaels' heart was sick and simply too weak. But another part wondered if it was actually something Alex did. He replayed the entire suture in his mind, over and over. He wondered where he had gone wrong, if he'd made an error. It was almost flawless, and he questioned if there was something he was missing.

* * *

She flipped through the T.V. channels, not bothering to stop to watch anything good. With a quart of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream sitting in her lap, she finally put the remote down at what seemed to be a replay of a daytime soap opera. She watched the over-dramatized show, while taking increasingly larger spoons of ice cream, until she realized that she'd gone through almost the whole quart. When she realized that the storyline was about a young woman whose fiancé had passed away due to heart failure, she turned off the T.V.

She heard a knock, and looked over to see Alex walk in. The expression on his face looked like his day had been equally as bad as hers, if not worse. She scooted over on the bed so that he could sit, and he pushed his shoes aside, before crawling up next to her. She handed him the ice cream, because she reasoned with herself that it looked like he needed it more than she did.

After a few moments of silence, Izzie spoke. "I told George."

"I killed my patient" he retorted, taking the last spoonful of ice cream.

*** Don't forget to review!**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N: Again with the reviews, you guys are way too amazing! If someone told me when I started writing this story that by the ninth chapter, I'd have over eighty reviews, I would NOT believe it. I know you guys wanted to see more A/I, and there's only a little, but you'll see more in the next chapter (:  
Remember when I make promises to fix things (coughcough-G/I-coughcough), I always follow through ;)**

**Warning: This chapter discusses abortion. I know this is a touchy subject, so I was debating whether or not to include it at all. But this is actually based on an actual patient encounter my cousin had to deal with last weekend, so this is about as realistic as it gets. I thought I would include a warning as well, just in case.**

The sound of her obnoxiously loud ringtone woke her at around 1:30 A.M. She ceased to remember when she had put her phone on anything louder than vibrate, and made a mental note that she clearly needed to get a new ringtone. The phone displayed the number as "Out of Area", and just by that, Izzie had a strong feeling that she knew who it was.

"Hello?" she said, groggily.

"Cricket! Oh, it's so nice to finally hear from you! Where have you been hiding?"

She rubbed her eyes in defeat, and all forms of sleep started to escape her. "Do you know what time it is?"

"What, you can't make any more time for your mother? I haven't spoken to you in _ages_, Isobel."

"I know" she said, and yawned. "I'm sorry, mom. It's been a little crazy around here."

"I can understand that – things have been crazy around here too. You know Gloria, who lives right down Wilson, near the water? Well, apparently a rumor is going around that someone snuck into her trailer last night, and almost took every last thing she owned! With her sleeping in the bed right there – imagine that! Now, if there's one thing I know, that woman can sleep through anything. I swear, I've never heard of anything–"

"Yeah mom…that's really, really interesting" Izzie replied, cutting her off in the middle of her story. She was afraid that if she never spoke up, her mom wouldn't ever stop talking. "But do you think we can maybe do this tomorrow or something?"

"It's always 'tomorrow' or 'later'. I won't keep you from your busy life very long, I just wanted to talk."

A wave of guilt washed over her. "It's fine, mom."

"So what have you been up to, Cricket? How's everything?" she said. "Any new boyfriends?"

She shook her head and slightly smiled at her mother's predictability. "No, no new boyfriends."

"Well, why not? You're young; you need to have some fun!"

"I just…I don't think I should have a boyfriend right now. Work is really competitive. I don't have time" she said, hoping to close any further conversation on the topic.

"That's all?" she asked. "Oh, sweetie, your job is always busy. Before you know it, you'll be left behind in the dust."

"I just can't, right now. I don't have the time, or the energy, to find a boyfriend."

She heard a small sigh from the other end of the phone. "It's always a different excuse; 'I'm too tired' or 'I don't have enough time'. I've heard it all before."

"Mom, it's not an excuse!" she snapped. "Please, let it go."

"What's the matter, Cricket?" she asked. "You seem angry, and you aren't the type to be angry. Not with me, anyway."

"I'm just stressed out, with everything that's been going on lately" she replied.

"Well, just talk. Explain yourself."

She contemplated the idea of telling her. Her mother would understand, right? Izzie was a grown woman. She should be able to make her own choices by now. She toyed with the thought of it before giving in. "I-I think…" she stammered. "Mom, I think I'm pregnant."

There was silence from the other end of the phone, and Izzie wondered if they'd been disconnected. "Isobel Katherine…" she could hear the disappointment in her mother's voice. "You're pregnant?"

She bit her lip. "I know what you're thinking, but I swear, this baby won't be like Hannah. I'm a lot older now; I'm a lot more responsible…"

Before she could finish her sentence, she heard a small, almost inaudible 'click', and silence, from the other end of the phone line.

* * *

Meredith slipped into her bright blue scrubs, and she neatly folded the clothes she'd been wearing and placed them in a stack in her locker.

"All I'm saying is, he can't ask me out on a date, show up drunk, and then be all McCharming the next day, like nothing even happened" Cristina said, as she re-capped the events from the previous night.

"You're right" Meredith replied, although half of her mind was somewhere else entirely. She noticed someone walking towards them from the corner of her eye. As the figure came closer, she realized that it was George.

"Hey, do you know where Shepherd is?" George asked.

Meredith shook her head. "I don't know – he mentioned something about checking up on a patient this morning."

Izzie walked in next, and Meredith noticed a lack of cheerfulness that usually surrounded her. She watched her walk past them to get to her locker, and make eye contact with George; who blatantly ignored her presence. She saw Izzie's expression drop even further down, as George continued to solely talk to Meredith.

"I have this case – well, this woman. She came into the ER this morning after she passed out on her way to work. I think it might be something else" he continued. "Can you let him know that I'm looking for him?"

Meredith nodded, and George wordlessly walked out of the locker room. She turned her attention to the blonde standing next to her. "You look terrible" she told her, brutal honesty lacing her words.

"Thanks" she muttered.

* * *

The clinic was almost empty, and the sunset was visible through the broad windows. A few patients were still seated, but none of them looked urgent. With every patient Izzie called, she knew that it would mean one less patient until she could go home. Every time the door of the clinic opened, her heart froze at the thought of another runny nose or stomach ache, but she was relieved every time to see another doctor, or the janitor. She was the only one working the clinic after some of the interns had left, and she had been anxiously looking at her watch, wondering when her shift would be over.

She pulled the first folder from the stack of a few files, and was relieved at how little was left. "Katie Andrews?" she called out.

A young girl, about fifteen or sixteen, stood up. With a white headphone in one ear, and music loud enough that Izzie could hear, she followed her to one of the patient beds. Izzie closed the curtain behind them. She noted the girls' general lack of acknowledgement, and lack of interest, and part of Izzie wondered if this was wasting her time.

"How can I help you?" she asked, putting on her best fake smile.

The girl sighed. "I think I need an abortion or something" she began. "Me and my boyfriend were, like, fooling around. We got a little carried away. I took a pregnancy test and everything. I just need to get rid of it. Like, today. My parents are gonna get freak if I'm home late."

Izzie stood, a bit taken aback by the girls' request. "To schedule an abortion…I would need paperwork, blood samples, an actual ultrasound…these things, they would take a few weeks, at least" she added, while shaking her head. "An abortion is an invasive procedure. There are several risks."

"Blood work doesn't take too long, right? It's just, like, a needle, and you fill the tube with blood. That can't take long. I'll fill out all the forms and everything, too."

"It's a little bit more complicated than that" she replied. "Katie, maybe you should talk to someone. Have you told your boyfriend?"

"No. And I'm not going to. That's why I need to get _rid of it_."

"I'm sorry" she said. "If this is something you're really set on, then you can schedule another appointment. There are always other options; adoption, or maybe keeping it. But if I were you, I would look more into it before deciding."

"What's the big deal? People bend the rules all the time! This isn't about a flu shot or some stupid x-ray; this is about me being a mom. This is about me carrying around a freakin' baby. Why can't you get over yourself and help me?"

She heard the shuffling of papers through the other side of curtain, and her voice unintentionally became louder. "I'm trying to help you. But you have to realize that I can't do this in a day. There are protocols I have to follow, or I can get in a lot of trouble."

"You're telling me you can't make an exception? Don't give me that bullshit; don't tell me you've never made an exception before! The only difference is that you look at me and think that I'm some white-trash girl who got knocked up before she graduated high school. You don't give a crap what this can do to my future!" The young girl pulled the curtain across, and walked swiftly out of the clinic. Izzie's stomach sank as she saw that Dr. Bailey, who was standing near the nurses' desk, had witnessed the entire thing.

She was pulled outside, as she had expected, and Dr. Bailey stood in front of her. Izzie suspected a speech coming on.

"Stevens, I'd like for you to explain to me what just happened between you and that patient."

Izzie paused, trying to think out her words beforehand. "Katie came into the clinic, because she claimed that she was pregnant. She wanted me to do an abortion right then and there, even though-"

Dr. Bailey cut her off. "Have we not learned that teenage pregnancies in clinic patients are sensitive cases, which need to be handled with more attention than regular clinic patients? Have we not seen the statistics of 'at-home' abortions, and the risks and complications that they lead to? Have we not learned that these complications can be fatal?" she sighed. "Continue."

"I _kindly_ explained to her that this process takes a lot longer than just a day. She started telling me that people bend the rules, and that I should make an exception."

"Did you bother to ask how long she'd been pregnant for? If she had used protection? If she had thought out her options?"

"I told her about her options…"

"How old was your patient?"

"Fifteen."

"I don't know about you, but I don't know any fifteen year olds who can make a rational decision, especially about something like this. The girl was scared, Stevens. She hadn't thought it through, and her plan was backfiring on her" she told her. "I expected you to handle this with care."

"She's acting like her baby is something she could throw in the garbage, Dr. Bailey!" Her voice contained heat, and part of her was talking from past experience. "She has to realize that this is a big deal – mistake or not, she can't just 'get rid of it'! It's her responsibility now; she has to own up to it."

Dr. Bailey's eyebrows narrowed, and her tone turned stern. "Whatever emotional attachment you have to this case, it ends now" she said. "Again and again, you still haven't learned to keep your emotions separate from your work. You've seen what it could lead it, but you haven't learned your lesson. You may be a resident, you may be an attending, but unfortunately, you haven't acquired something you should have learned your intern year – you haven't learned distance." She held out one hand. "From now on, I will be over-seeing every patient; I will be maintaining this clinic until you can learn from your mistakes."

"But it was one-!"

"Don't argue with me, Stevens. Keys" she repeated, and Izzie reluctantly fished the spare keys out of her pocket, and dropped it into Dr. Bailey's hand.

* * *

"Good work today, Karev" Mark Sloan said, as he scrubbed out simultaneously. "Didn't know you had it in you."

"Thank you" he said. "I've always had my eye on plastics, but I still haven't picked a specialty yet."

"Didn't I hear you were pursuing Ped's, or Gynie a few years back? You can't cheat on plastics."

Alex laughed a little. "I wanted to try out different things. Expand my horizons, you know?" he added.

"Plastics isn't the one you cheat on. Plastics is the one you have an affair _with_" he said. "You don't go into plastics unless it's the only specialty you can think about."

He left and Alex took a quick look at the clock on the wall behind him. It was past two in the morning, and he wondered how time had gone by so quickly. The last time he checked, he was rolling in the patient into the operating room at six o'clock. It seemed that everything disappeared under the bright lights of surgery.

His drive home was surprisingly calm, and it was the first drive home he'd felt at ease. With barely anyone else on the road, he got home faster than usual, and he hadn't had anything to fill up his mind with useless thoughts. He was finally at a point in his life where everything had seemed to be falling into place. Everything seemed _right_. Even though his life was a circus act most of the day, he oddly felt that this was the way it was supposed to be.

Walking into a dark house, he was careful to make his movements quiet and careful. He pondered if anyone was still awake, but shook it off when he headed upstairs towards the mostly dark hallway. He saw a faint light coming from Izzie's room, and as he walked closer, he saw that she was sitting on her bed, with what looked like a medical book sitting on her lap.

"Alex?"

He stood in the doorway to her room. "Hey. You're still up" he said.

She nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't really get to sleep. How was your surgery?"

Walking in, he took off his jacket before sitting on the edge of her bed. "It was good; Sloan said it went well. There was something about post-op infection but I think the patient's gonna be fine" he replied. "How was your day?"

Her face kept still, and Alex sensed there was something wrong, something off about her. "It was…terrible" she said, honestly. In a matter of a couple seconds, Alex noticed the few tears that rolled down her cheeks, as they turned into sobs, which turned into louder sobs. "Just…George ignoring me…and my mom hanging up on me…and Bailey taking back her clinic…I can't do a freaking abortion in an hour!...All because of stupid Katie Andrews…"

He didn't know how to react; it was the one of the few times he'd seen her break down like this. He could barely make out what she was saying, not that he could understand what it meant anyway. She covered her face with her hands, as her loud cries kept constant. He moved towards her, unsure of what to do, except put his arms around her. "It's okay, Iz" he whispered.

When she felt him move up to her, she rested her head on his shoulder, leaving small tear stains on his t-shirt. "I _can't_ do all this…I can't – I…I'm supposed to be having a freaking baby!" she spoke through sobs. He didn't say much, but he hoped that simply being there would make her feel better. He placed a soft kiss on her cheek, and her cries began to calm down.

"Alex" she said; her voice a bit more steady now, but still clearly upset. "I need…I, I can't…" she said, before another wave of sobs hit her. "I need you to stay here tonight…I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…"

With no intention of anything more than them staying friends, he cut her off. "Don't be stupid. Of course I'll stay."

As she began to quiet down, he couldn't help but to think back to the first night it had all happened; the way she held him while he cried. With every tear that rolled down her cheek, he wanted more than anything for her to be happy again. He knew it had taken a lot for her to get down to the level that she was, and he kept his hold around her as he thought about the events that had taken place three months before, that had led them to end up where they were now.

* * *

His pager directed him towards the conference room on the third floor. As he opened the door, a few people were seated and an unfamiliar woman stood at the head of the table.

"Dr. Karev…" the woman spoke firmly, yet respectfully. "Take a seat."

He looked around the room; Chief Webber and Dr. Hahn were sitting at one side of the table. Next to them was the scrub nurse that had operated on Mr. Michaels' valve repair. On the opposite side of the table was a man that he'd recognized from Human Resources.

He took a seat next to Dr. Hahn. "What is this?"

"My name is Mary Callahan, and I've asked Mr. Wes from Human Resources to join us. I am the Seattle Grace Hospital attorney, and we've all been called here in response to a lawsuit that was filed yesterday."

He raised both his eyebrows. "A lawsuit?"

"According to my records" she pulled out a packet that seemed to be a few pages long. "Yesterday, Mrs. Christine Michaels filed a lawsuit against Seattle Grace Hospital; in particular, against Dr. Erica Hahn and Dr. Alexander Karev. She is claiming malpractice, and had her lawyer come by today" she finished. "We will be investigating this case before, if needed, taking it to court. But the two of you should be aware that she is pressing charges, which may impact a lot" she said. "All I'm saying is…you should prepare yourselves."


End file.
